Not Pretty
by FunkyFiction
Summary: Can you, please, stop asking me out? All I want is to have a nice and quiet last year, I’m not pretty James. And I am nothing special." Maybe there is a reasonable reason that Lily never accepted James date proposals. JL


**Not Pretty**

"Hey Evans." James Potter said and walked up to her from behind. "Are you going to the library?" He smiled at her.

Lily Evans looked at the seventeen year old boy who walked next to her. She knew what he was going to do, since he had been trying to ask her out almost every day since fourth year, no wait, she just remembered that he started in the end of third year.

So she didn't answer his question, she needed to save her breath for the rejection.

"You want to go to Hogsmeade next weekend with me?" He asked.

"No." She simply answered.

"You want to accompany me to the Great hall for a romantic lunch?" He tried again.

"No." She repeated.

"You want to sit with me at dinner then?" James never gave up.

"No."

"Study with me?"

"No?"

"Take a walk outside with me?"

"No."

"Sit with me in Class tomorrow?"

"Potter!" She said angry and stopped instantly. "Why do you keep doing this?"

"Ask you out?" James asked and turned around toward her. "Because you are pretty." He said with a smile.

"No, that's not it." Lily said, her voice filled with anger. "You are doing this to mock me, asking out the weird Lily Evans, a loner, a bookworm and greatly disliked, oh, and not forget a muggleborn." She took a step closer to him. "I'm not pretty, I'm nothing special. Because the special and pretty girls has a best friend and aren't mocked by other people, all I want from you is to leave me alone, but you refuse to do that, and even if I might have wanted to believe that there was a true and good reason that you asked me out, but if I said yes, you would just set me up as one of your stupid pranks, make fun out of me."

"Evans..." James started, his voice sincere.

"No, you don't have to say a thing." Lily continued. "Can you, please, stop asking me out?" She paused for a moment. "All I want is to have a nice and quiet last year, I'm not pretty James. And I am nothing special."

Then she walked around him and continued down the hall, leaving James behind.

"I'm sorry Lily." James said. He honestly didn't know that she felt that way; it made him feel horrible that she did, like he actually was a bully.

Later that night even Sirius had notice that there was something different with James.

"What's up Pongs, you look rather gloomy." Sirius said and sat down next to James.

James didn't answer; he was just staring into the fire. They were completely alone in the head common room since Lily was spending all of her time in the library, avoiding spending anytime at all with James.

"Prongs, Tell me what's on your mind. You can tell me anything, I'm your friend remember." Sirius said.

"Do you ever noise that we might be hurting people by making fun out of them?" James asked him.

"No, but isn't that the fun of it?" Sirius said.

"Maybe." James shrugged. "I don't think that I ever realized that I hurt her."

"Her?" Sirius asked. "Are you talking about Evans?"

James nodded. "I'm so stupid, how could I actually think that she would say yes if I forced her to?"

Sirius didn't say anything.

"She thinks that she's nothing special, she thinks that I'm only asking her out to make fun out of her. I never... I went the completely wrong way to get her attention." He continued.

"You really like her? Thinks special of her?" Sirius asked.

"Maybe, I should go apologize to her." James said and stood up. "It's the best thing I can do."

He found Lily sitting in the library at the far end by the window.

"Hey Evans." James said when he came up to her.

"What do you want Potter?" She didn't even look up at him.

"I wanted to apologize." He said.

Now she looked up at him, wondering if all of this was just some stupid joke. but she couldn't find any traces of dishonestly on his face. "Why?" She asked him.

"I didn't know that you took offence by me asking you out." He said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

She looked at him more closely, was it remorse that she could see across his face? Or was it something else?

"I really mean it." He added when he saw the unsecure look across her face, he turned around to leave, but in the last minute added. "I think that you are pretty." Then he left the library and walked back to the head common room.

Later that night after Sirius had left to go to bed, which was to say very unusual for him at this hour, James still sat in the common room, having his Animagi paper in front of him, sure he had already done it and knew that he was going to get and O on it, but he still sat with it in front of him.

"Hey James." Lily came back from the library, right before the curfew started. but it was very unusual for her to greet him, and with his first name as well. And the weirdness continued as she got over to the sofa and sat down next to him. "I need help with the Animagi essay." She told him.

Was she asking him for help? He was completely bewildered, had he heard right? "Okay Lily, I'll help you. what do you need help with, you can look it up in mine if you want to." He handed her his own.

"Thank you." She said and took his. "Wow, you really know this subject." She said to him after a while.

James smiled, why wouldn't he know the subject of Animagi? But of course he couldn't tell her why he knew it so well. "I did my home work." He answered.

"James?" Lily asked after a while.

"Yes Lily?" James answered, was he the only one in this room who noticed that they had started using their first names on each other, he didn't think that had ever happened before.

"Did you really mean that, what you told me earlier in the library?" She asked.

Yes, that was a fair question coming from her, now, how was he going to answer it. "Yes I did." he answered simply. "My dad taught me nothing about how to talk to a girl you liked, so that's was why I have been acting like an idiot."

Lily nodded at the answer, but then returning to his essay.

"James?" She asked again.

"Yes Lily?" James answered.

"You want to go with me to Hogsmeade next weekend?" She asked him truthfully.

"What?" James asked, not believing what he just had heard.

"I asked if you..." Lily repeated.

"Yeah, I heard that." James said. "This is not the way it's supposed to be, I was supposed to be the one who's asking you out."

"Do I have wait until tomorrow for that?" She looked at him.

"Why do you think you have to wait until tomorrow?" James asked.

"Because you already asked me today." Lily informed him.

"And I have to wait until tomorrow because…?" James didn't see the reason why.

"You only ask me out a few times every day, and you have tried six times today."

"Six times?" James asked, had she been counting them?

"Yes, to Hogsmeade, to lunch, to dinner, to study, to a walk and to class." She half smiled. "Six times, like always."

"Fine then." He gave up. "I can only ask you out six times a day."

"So…" Lily waited for him.

"What?" James asked, not understanding what she was waiting for.

"You want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?" Lily asked.

"I'd love to." James answered.

"Great, then it's a date." Lily said and gave James back his essay. "I am going to sleep now, see you tomorrow." She added and walked up to her sleeping dorm.

"Great." James said quietly to himself as he still was unsure if this was a dream or reality. "It's a date."


End file.
